1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to a digital data recorder and is particularly directed to a recorder for use in combination with a shorthand transcribing machine for providing a computer readable and translatable digital record of the phonetic words which are recorded by the shorthand machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Stenography is a widely used technique for recording the spoken word. The basic process includes two steps: (1) making a phonetic record of the speech being recorded, and (2) transcribing the phonetic record to a grammatical record such as, by way of example, an English language transcript. To insure reliability and efficiency in the recording process, and to simplify the transcribing process, shorthand machines are frequently employed to produce the phonetic record. Such machines are especially useful where the recording is made over a relatively long period of time, for example, in the courtroom or at a business meeting.
A widely used shorthand machine has a keyboard of twenty-two phonetically related symbols and characters which, to the skilled operator, provide the combinations necessary to record all English language words. The record produced by the machine is a paper tape on which the phonetic characters are printed. To record a word or part of a word, the operator strokes an appropriate combination of keys and the machine prints the characters simultaneously on an interval of the paper tape. The tape is advanced one interval before each combination is recorded.
For example, the paper tape record of the sentence, "You should be able to read these short words." would appear as follows on the paper tape:
______________________________________ U S H U D B A BL T O R E D T H E S S H O R T W O R DZ ______________________________________
A general description of this type of machine is given in U.S. Pat. No. 2,319,273 entitled Stenographic Machine, issued to J. G. Sterling and assigned to the assignee of the present application.
The shorthand machine provides both reliability and economy in the recording process, but the transcribing process while improved through the use of a shorthand machine, remains time consuming. The operator must read back the paper tape containing the phonetic characters and make a corresponding grammatical record.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,927 entitled Stenographic Transcription System, issued to R. T. Wright, et al, and assigned to the assignee of the present application describes an improvement in the shorthand machine wherein the machine is modified to provide an electrical output in response to an operator's engaging an appropriate combination of keys. The electrical output provides input information to a computer, and the computer then performs the transcribing function by comparing the input characters from the shorthand machine with a grammatical reference, for producing a grammatical output. In its simplest form, the grammatical reference is a "dictionary" which relates all English language words to their phonetic or machine shorthand equivalents. The shorthand machine is coupled to a magnetic tape recorder which makes a record suitable for input to a computer. The recorder includes means for allocating fixed intervals along the magnetic tape to phonetic words and for allocating fixed subintervals to individual phonetic characters. The record is made in binary form wherein the binary bits in a predetermined subinterval indicate the presence or absence of the particular phonetic character associated with the subinterval. By using the intervals and subintervals, both recording and reading may be accomplished.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,832,733 entitled Manual Input Recordation of Data and Complement issued to B. Eldridge and assigned to Telewave Systems, Inc. also discloses a recording system for recording in digital form the phonetic phrases taken on a shorthand machine. In this system, each phonetic phrase comprises a combination of data and data (not data) signals, both of which are recorded, on separate tracks, on the magnetic tape.
By way of background, it should be noted that the following terms are used throughout this disclosure and are to be given their intended meaning as understood in the art:
The term "stroke" refers to the act of an operator engaging the keys of a shorthand machine with sufficient force to impress a symbol or character on the paper tape, and/or to produce an electrical output representing the symbol.
The terms "symbol" and/or "character" mean any representation of word construction including but not limited to letters of the alphabet. The term "combination" is intended to include single as well as multiple elements.
The term "phonetic words" means a particular combination of phonetic characters which may form all or part of the phonetics of a spoken word.
Also, it should be noted that the standard convention for the inverse or complement of an electrical signal is utilized, i.e., the inverse of A is A (not A). Signal leads carrying the inverse of a primary signal are also identified in this manner.